As one of the best selling books of all time, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is a moral-filled educational story of racial injustice in the South. The story takes place in the mid 1930s and is based around the citizens of Maycomb County, Alabama. The citizens of Maycomb are hit with the Depression and times were hard. The story revolves around the Finches, being Jean Louise, Jeremy and Atticus. Although they weren't hit very badly with the times, they still had a lot of difficult things issues to deal with. One of the story's main focuses are on the children's education, and one of the main morals Atticus Finch tries to teach his children is tolerance. .
Scout and Jem's learning experiences start early in the novel. They both begin learning the important of tolerance in delicate situations. On Scout's first day of school, after "starting off on the wrong foot" (Lee, 27) with her teacher, an enraged Scout goes after Walter Cunningham. Jem soon came along and told her to stop. "Catching Walter Cunningham in the schoolyard gave me some pleasure, but when I was rubbing his nose in the dirt Jem came by and told me to stop." (Lee, 25). By reading the quote, one sees that Jem, being older then Scout, has already been taught to tolerate things more easily then Scout. This incident is one of the clear examples of how Atticus teaches tolerance through Jem who is passing on his values onto his younger sister.
Scout and Jem's teachings do not stop there, as there are more events that inquire knowledge in the rising action. When Atticus finds out about Jem's incident with Mrs. Dubose's flowers, instead of punishing him, he teaches him a lesson. "Son, I have no doubt that you've been annoyed by your contemporaries about me lawing for niggers, as you say, but to do something like this to a sick old lady is inexcusable. I strongly advise you to go down and have a talk with Mrs. Dubose." (Lee, 108). This example depicts some of Atticus" teaching methods.